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Task vs Quest - What's the difference?

task | quest |

As nouns the difference between task and quest

is that task is a piece of work done as part of one’s duties while quest is a journey or effort in pursuit of a goal (often lengthy, ambitious, or fervent); a mission.

As verbs the difference between task and quest

is that task is to assign a task to, or impose a task on while quest is to seek or pursue a goal; to undertake a mission or job.

As an abbreviation QUEST is

quantized electronic structure.

task

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A piece of work done as part of one’s duties.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= A new prescription , passage=As the world's drug habit shows, governments are failing in their quest to monitor every London window-box and Andean hillside for banned plants. But even that Sisyphean task looks easy next to the fight against synthetic drugs. No sooner has a drug been blacklisted than chemists adjust their recipe and start churning out a subtly different one.}}
  • A difficult or tedious undertaking.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-19, author= Ian Sample
    • , volume=189, issue=6, page=34, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Irregular bedtimes may affect children's brains , passage=Irregular bedtimes may disrupt healthy brain development in young children, according to a study of intelligence and sleeping habits.  ¶ Going to bed at a different time each night affected girls more than boys, but both fared worse on mental tasks than children who had a set bedtime, researchers found.}}
  • An objective.
  • (computing) A process or execution of a program.

    • Usage notes

    * Adjectives often applied to "task": difficult, easy, simple, hard, tough, complex, not-so-easy, challenging, complicated, tricky, formidable, arduous, laborious, onerous, small, big, huge, enormous, tremendous, gigantic, mammoth, colossal, gargantuan, social, intellectual, theological, important, basic, trivial, unpleasant, demanding, pleasant, noble, painful, grim, responsible, rewarding, boring, ungrateful, delightful, glorious, agreeable.

    Synonyms

    * (piece of work) chore * (difficult undertaking) undertaking * (objective) objective, goal * (process) process

    Derived terms

    * multitasking * subtask * task force * take to task * taskable * taskbody * tasklet * taskmaster

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To assign a task to, or impose a task on.
    • On my first day in the office, I was tasked with sorting a pile of invoices.
  • * 1610 , , act 1 scene 2
    • All hail, great master! grave sir, hail! I come / To answer thy best pleasure; be't to fly, / To swim, to dive into the fire, to ride / On the curl'd clouds, to thy strong bidding task / Ariel and all his quality.
  • * Dryden
    • There task thy maids, and exercise the loom.
  • To oppress with severe or excessive burdens; to tax.
  • To charge, as with a fault.
  • * Beaumont and Fletcher
    • Too impudent to task me with those errors.

    Anagrams

    * * *

    quest

    English

    (wikipedia quest)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A journey or effort in pursuit of a goal (often lengthy, ambitious, or fervent); a mission.
  • * (William Shakespeare)
    • Cease your quest of love.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-01
    • , author=Katie L. Burke , title=Ecological Dependency , volume=101, issue=1, page=64 , magazine= citation , passage=In his first book since the 2008 essay collection Natural Acts: A Sidelong View of Science and Nature , David Quammen looks at the natural world from yet another angle: the search for the next human pandemic, what epidemiologists call “the next big one.” His quest leads him around the world to study a variety of suspect zoonoses—animal-hosted pathogens that infect humans.}}
  • The act of seeking, or looking after anything; attempt to find or obtain; search; pursuit.
  • (obsolete) Request; desire; solicitation.
  • * Herbert
    • Gad not abroad at every quest and call / Of an untrained hope or passion.
  • (obsolete) A group of people making search or inquiry.
  • * (William Shakespeare)
    • The senate hath sent about three several quests to search you out.
  • (obsolete) Inquest; jury of inquest.
  • * (William Shakespeare)
    • What lawful quest have given their verdict?

    Derived terms

    * sidequest

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To seek or pursue a goal; to undertake a mission or job.
  • To search for; to examine.
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